Chapter 72

While waiting for dinner, Tang Yi-Bai wanted to go see Yun Duo's room. He did not have any indecent intentions — he just wanted to see the place where she had grown up.

After all, she had already seen his.

The layout of Yun Duo's room was very cosy. Her things were arranged neatly, and there were many books on the wooden shelves. He randomly picked one of the books and Tang Yi-Bai saw the underlines marking the page he had turned to. There was even a bookmark made from flower petals inside the book.

He smiled. "You must have been a good student since you were little."

Yun Duo was a little proud. "I wasn't bad. I was already wearing a red scarf{Apparently a sign of a top student in primary schools in China.} in first grade."

"Me too."

"Actually, you're better," said Yun Duo, "I didn't have the ability to win first prize at the Math Olympiads when I was a kid. Speaking of which, do you have any regrets? After all, according to the collective Chinese mentality, studying is number one. Many people only become sports students because they aren't good at studying. I don't mean any disrespect, ok? It's just fact." As she spoke, her occupational habits intruded and she ended up using cautious interview lingo. And then she posited a tempting scenario: "If you had studied like everyone else and attended a college exam, you might have even been able to make it into Tsinghua University."

Tang Yi-Bai returned the book to the bookshelf and said with a smile, "Tsinghua produces several thousand graduates each year, while there are only around 300 Olympic champions every four years. I've always thought that my ambitions are quite lofty."

Yun Duo smiled. She liked this determined composure of his, wise and open-minded.

She found a large storage box. Inside it were the various things she had collected as she grew up — Black Cat Detective's little motorbike, Doraemon and Sailormoon stickers, postcards of 'My Fair Princess' and 'The Return of The Condor Heroes', a Cardcaptor Sakura pencil box, a cartoon pig ink stamp, soft toys from KFC, miscellaneous children's books, some game consoles, idol booklets, a cassette tape of Jay Chou, a half-sewn coin purse, and so on.

It was like a great treasure chest, full of precious memories.

Girls were more sentimental and liked to have concrete representations of their memories. Compared with hers, Tang Yi-Bai's childhood collection was rather sparse, his toys constantly discarded when they no longer suited him. Right now, faced with such a large box of memorabilia, he found it particularly fun and interesting. He touched one thing and picked at another, imagining a bun-like little Duoduo playing with these items. He could not help but smile, his eyes curving into half-moons and his gaze shining with a gentle light.

Even as he smiled, he felt a little regretful. It was a loss that he had not known her earlier...

Yun Duo brought out two photo albums from a cabinet and the two flipped through them as they leaned against one another. The photo album recorded her development even more clearly. The very first chapter was a full-scale nude shot of her at 100 days old.

Tang Yi-Bai: "Ha."

She initially thought nothing of it, but when he laughed, she suddenly felt a little awkward and blushed. She quickly turned the page.

Tang Yi-Bai smiled and said, "Don't worry, I'll take responsibility."

Yun Duo scoffed lightly. "Who needs you to take responsibility?"

"Don't be angry. At most, I can let you see me in return."

Yun Duo's face turned even redder out of embarrassment and some restlessness. "Who wants to see you?!"

Tang Yi-Bai grinned widely. "I'm talking about my 100-day portrait. Where has your mind gone to?"

"You..."

"Ok, ok, don't be angry. Why don't you hit me a little to vent?" said Tang Yi-Bai, clapping her hand to his face.

Yun Duo was exasperated and amused, "Cheeky."

Tang Yi-Bai held her hand to his face, keeping it there as he looked smilingly at her. His gaze was heated.

Yun Duo did not dare to make eye contact any longer. She quickly ducked her head and continued to peruse the photo album.

She turned to a photo and pointed at the skinniest girl in it. "See, this is from when we went for our autumn field trip to Qixia Mountain."

"Which was also the first time we really met." Tang Yi-Bai touched her little face in the photograph with his index finger. Suddenly, he sighed and said, "I regret it now."

"Regret what?"

"Back then, I shouldn't have tried to be some unsung hero and just left like that. I should have stuck around and followed you home to wait for your family to give your hand to me in marriage as thanks and set a childhood betrothal. That way, you would have been mine since you were seven." That way, I wouldn't have missed so much of your life.

Since it was destined for me to meet you and fall in love with you so deeply, then why should I resist? I might as well cradle you in my arms earlier.

Yun Duo bowed her head, the corners of her lips curved up into a smile. "This premise cannot be established. You weren't this shameless at 7 years old."

They continued to look through the album — in the pictures, little Yun Duo slowly grew into big Yun Duo. "A girl changes 18 times growing up to become a woman" — this saying was fully embodied in the album. When Yun Duo was little, she had been small and thin, but by the time she graduated high school, she had already become a slender and graceful beauty.

University followed. As they turned the pages, Yun Duo suddenly said, "Tang Yi-Bai, I want to confess something."

Tang Yi-Bai was currently hugging her around the shoulders and sniffing lightly at her hair. He replied, "Ok, what is it?"

"Didn't I tell you before that you are my first love?"

Tang Yi-Bai froze and he asked a little nervously, "Is it... not true?"

He should have known that it couldn't be true. A girl as cute as her would definitely have been whisked away by some other pig long ago... Tang Yi-Bai thought irritably, unknowingly scolding himself in the process.

Yun Duo shook her head. "No, uh, that's not right, it's... oh, I don't even know how to say this anymore. You are my first love, but during my university days, there was some ambiguous feelings between me and one of my male classmates."

"Ambiguous feelings? To what extent?"

"Well, our classmates often teased us about being together. He was the most popular guy in school, and there were actually many girls who liked him. Many of the girls around me liked him too, but they just liked to keep trying to match him and me together." So saying, she pointed at one of the boys in a photo. "There, that's him."

Tang Yi-Bai glanced down. Yes, he was indeed handsome. Of course, he would never outright praise a former love rival like this, so he merely said, "Not bad. Just so-so... and then?"

"The story is really quite cheesy and cringe-worthy. At first I was a little annoyed, but he treated me quite well. When the others made a fuss and teased us, he basically never argued back or tried to explain, so I thought he liked me. Girls, right? We have out pride and vanity. I have to admit that being liked by the most popular guy in school was something to be proud of. I guess that this probably contributed to my poor affinity with the other girls in university. The only one who stuck by me was Chen Si-Qi. But he never ever confessed to me, and I never confessed to him either. Anyway, here's a major twist. In our junior year, I accidentally saw him kissing one of our teachers."

Tang Yi-Bai was shocked. "A teacher?"

"Yes, that teacher was 6 or 8 years older than him. I can't remember. Rumour had it that they got to know each other when the teacher was a home tutor for him. Later, they got together and began cohabitating since his freshman year. But they always kept a low profile so nobody knew. He told me all this himself. Yes, he came to me and apologised, admitting that he had been using me as a shield."

This was a better outcome — at least Yun Duo hadn't had to go question the boy herself. Tang Yi-Bai knew there was a essential difference between the two. More at ease now, he asked, "So, you don't really like him that much?"

Yun Duo shook her head. "I don't like him. When he apologised, other than being a little angry that he had used me, I didn't feel much else. There was no jealousy or heartache, nothing like that. Later, I carefully analysed the situation and felt that we probably weren't very compatible anyway. Even though he was very handsome, he always gave off a cold and gloomy vibe, and he had an expressionless face to boot. I don't like that type. Still, I must admit that he is quite capable. He later joined the Department of Public Information."

Tang Yi-Bai felt somewhat fortunate. Luckily, the slack-faced campus heartthrob's heart already belonged to someone else, and luckily, his personality was not the type Yun Duo liked... and again luckily, he had held Yun Duo back from being stolen away by someone else.

Yun Duo sighed. "At first, I was quite disgusted that he had used me, but thinking back on it later, they had not had it easy either. He contacted me a few days before on WeChat, saying he wanted to get married but his family disapproved, because his girlfriend is several years older than him."

Tang Yi-Bai said, "I've also been confessed to by a girl a few years older than me."

Yun Duo perked up with interest, her eyes blinking brightly at him. "How did you react?"

Tang Yi-Bai laughed out loud and bopped her on her nose. "How else would I react? I rejected her."

"How did you refuse? I feel like you would be especially good at rejecting girls."

"Well, I said to her, 'How could I like you? I never want to see you again'."

Yun Duo was flabbergasted. "You- you went that far?"

Tang Yi-Bai grimaced. "The situation was a little special. I was in a very bad mood then, and I was still rather young. In my panic, I showed no mercy. Later on, we lost touch. If I ever see her again, I really want to say 'I'm sorry' to her."

Yun Duo quickly nodded. "You really do owe her an apology... and I thought you would be good at cajoling girls."

He laughed. "Just you."

---

Previous: Chapter 71
Next: Chapter 73

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